Press Review

“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” comments with sarcasm on a Russian official’s clarification that Armenia will join the Russian-led Customs Union without Nagorno-Karabakh. The paper says the good thing about this is that Karabakh, unlike Armenia, will retain its independence. “Also positive is the fact that if Armenia decides at the last minute to preserve its independence and abandon the Customs Union it will have a good excuse: we’re not going anywhere without Karabakh,” it says.

“168 Zham” says Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian’s meeting on Wednesday with Armenia’s leading entrepreneurs exposed several serious breaches of Armenian law. First of all, explains the paper, among the participants of the meeting were wealthy members of the Armenian parliament and other officials who are not legally allowed to engage in business. They have always claimed that they only own, rather than run, businesses. The paper wonders why their business managers did not take part in the meeting with Abrahamian in their place. It says this question is “ridiculous” because Abrahamian himself is one of Armenia’s richest men.

“When he promised at the meeting to create a level playing field for all businesspeople, did that apply to Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamian or businessman Hovik Abrahamian? The asnwers to these seemingly ludicrous questions are in fact the biggest problems facing Armenia. They are not solved but aggravated at meetings like yesterday’s,” concludes “168 Zham.”

“Zhamanak” refers to the participants of that meeting as they key players of the informal sector of the Armenian economy. “Hovik Abrahamian probably summoned them to say that they should partly come out of the shadow, raise some money and sort out of the economy a little so that there is no social revolt or disastrous crisis,” speculates the paper. “This issue will certainly not be solved in the government’s conference hall. A solution to the issue will require more such meetings involving fewer participants.” The paper also points out that the wealthy parliamentarians present at Wednesday’s meeting proved they are illegally engaged in entrepreneurial activities.

“Haykakan Zhamanak” asks Poland’s ambassador to Armenia, Zdzislaw Raczynski, to comment on the Armenian authorities’ plans to place a statue of Soviet leader Anastas Mikoyan in Yerevan. Raczynski notes in that regard that Mikoyan was one of the members of Joseph Stalin’s entourage who authorized, in writing, the execution in 1940 of some 22,000 Polish army officers taken prisoner by the Red Army. He says Mikoyan also oversaw Stalin’s massive purges in Soviet Armenia. “Therefore, my and Armenians’ attitude to Mikoyan is obvious,” adds Raczynski.